Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover

Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover (18 March 1914-9 December 1987) was the head of the House of Hanover from 30 January 1953 to 9 December 1987, succeeding Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick and preceding Ernest August of Hanover.

Biography
Ernest Augustus was born in Braunschweig, Brunswick, German Empire on 18 March 1914, the son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia. He ceased being heir to his father's duchy at the age of four, when his father abdicated in 1918. During World War II, he served as an Oberleutnant in the Wehrmacht while fighting on the Russian front as a staff officer under Colonel-General Erich Hoepner. He was seriously injured near Kharkov in the spring of 1943, and he was imprisoned for a few weeks by the Gestapo following the 20 July plot in 1944. In 1953, he became head of the House of Hanover following his father's death, and he became a naturalized British subject in 1956 due to his status as the brother-in-law of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (his brother was married to Philip's sister Sophie). In 1961, he sold his lands at Herrenhausen Gardens (including a palace which had been destroyed during a British bombing raid in 1943), and he died in Pattensen, Lower Saxony, West Germany in 1987.